A drop in the Divine Ocean: November 2019

May I share the State of my Heart? Are you interested in listening to my story? Will you journey with me? These are a few recurrent questions that often remain unanswered.

Human hearts are torn apart between two worlds - the spiritual and the material. The spiritual world yearns for peace, humility, detachment, and harmony, whereas the multifaceted world lures individuals into creating their own cocoons. Hence, there is an endless struggle.

Time and again the world calls us to respond in new ways, to look for meaning where society seems to have lost its way. “We have conquered every distance except one – the distance between human beings,” says Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

The need of the hour is to reconnect with the face of God who is pure love, pure energy, pure intention. (Medaille’s seeking God in all things: Maxim 73). This can be done only when we open ourselves to beauty in the present, with absolute need and desire to share, so as to see more expressions of God. It also demands endless effort and receptivity to being open to all without distinction, to be willing to recognize and be recognized, to give back what one has received.

Glancing through the newspapers or listening to any news, what surfaces is injustice, hatred, and violence. In fact, we are aghast by the horrors of war, genocide, disease, global warming, insensitivity to all inhabitants of Earth, and indifference to the life of the planet.

Let me offer you a glance at recent India. In the name of eliminating terrorism, the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu Kashmir has done much harm to the common people. People are still under house arrest, deprived of basic needs, medical facilities, and disconnected from the outer world. The rest of the world is satisfied with the message, “everything is fine in Jammu Kashmir.”

The stories in Assam - a North-Eastern State is a big question mark on human dignity. The passing of NRC Bill has created havoc in the lives of those taken into various concentration camps or detention centers. NRC is the National Register of Citizens, and according to this bill, every Assamese has to prove his/her Indian citizenship. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on September 19, 2019 asserted that the NRC will be introduced throughout India and all illegal immigrants will be deported from the country, through legal means. Will NRC get rid of all the intruders? Who is an intruder? The question remain unanswered.

Added to these catastrophes, floods in most Indian States have left millions of Indians, homeless. In the State of Maharashtra one finds a double whammy - while Kolhapur and Badlapur are submerged in floods, Marathwada still faces drought.

The world acclaims the spiritual legacy of Mahatma Gandhi – the Father of our Nation killed at the hands of Nathuram Godse, who pulled the trigger, but who really killed Gandhiji? Who gave Godse the pistol? The question continues to remain a question.

Fundamentalism, racism, rapes, silencing the journalists are on the increase. The ideology of the ruling Government to make India a Hindu Nation has been a stigma on its democratic nature. Like those in concentration camps, those under house arrest, those who have lost their homes, justice, and humanness, they have been eliminated from the face of the earth.

We consider ourselves citizens of free India. Year after year, we respectfully salute our Freedom Fighters who shed their blood for our freedom. Are we truly free? Do we have the courage to fight for the rights of our brethren? Or, do we, like Nero’s guests, enjoy the cost of human holocaust? Who will listen to their stories? Will you be the one…??

- Laveena CSJ